Boycotts and Social Ostracism

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Home > Publications > Intolerance & Discrimination Against the Scientology Community in Germany Today

Intolerance & Discrimination Against the Scientology Community in Germany Today

SECTION II. BOYCOTTS AND SOCIAL OSTRACISM

igns placed over the front of Jewish shops and stores in the Germany of the 1930s read “Don’t buy from Jews.”

Until the Holocaust overshadowed all that had preceded it, boycotts of Jewish enterprises and ostracism of the Jewish community from the trades and professions was considered by the Jews themselves to be the most damaging form of persecution they faced. In 1937, the American Jewish Congress published The Economic Destruction of German Jewry by the Nazi Regime, warning that:

“... the most serious problem confronting German Jews is their gradual squeezing out from economic life.... the closing to them of every profession, of every avenue of trade and employment, of every path to livelihood or skill in labour for the new coming generation. This side of the campaign is carried through without physical force, without massacre, without bullets, but it means, none the less, decisive destruction.”

Bloodless discrimination may make less dramatic headlines than the smashing of store windows; yet, as the passage above tells, it can be as deadly. In the Germany of today, it is extremely hard to obtain a bank account if you are a Scientologist; children have been refused admittance to kindergarten because their parents are Scientologists; businesses owned by Scientologists are boycotted and many have been fired from their jobs because of their religion and left with no means of support for their family. Some have been forced to emigrate to escape the discrimination.

Such threats to the livelihood of regular folk are not given as much attention as boycotts of movies featuring international stars, yet they happen every day.

It has become commonplace in Germany for companies to demand that employees or other firms with which they intend to do business sign formal declarations that they are not members of the Church of Scientology. Similar forms were used in the 1930s by organizations to attest that they were free of Jewish influence. Now, as then, no such attestation is required from murderers, thieves, former SS officers or neo-Nazis.

The parallels with the 1930s are compelling. Specific instances follow:

1990: Mr. O. performed his alternative military service at the Technical Welfare Organization. When his involvement in the Church of Scientology became known, he was asked to cancel his membership—otherwise he would have to give up his job.

1990, Hamburg: A Scientologist, Mrs. S. from Hamburg, reported that since the Labor Office found out she is a Scientologist, it never provided prospective staff for her real estate brokerage office.

1990: A bank rejected an application to finance the purchase of a flat by a member of the Church of Scientology because they had learned of his membership. His financial circumstances were in perfectly good order.

1990, August: The Medical Dental Center for the North Rhine district refused to grant dental apprenticing contracts for two young women to Mr. G., a Scientologist from Düsseldorf. Dr. G. was considered “unfit” to apprentice the young women because he is a Scientologist.

November 1990: Mr. C. from Rendsburg reported that his bank had canceled his usual business credit simply because he belonged to the Church of Scientology. This happened after the press had reported on his membership.

Boycotts and social ostracism continued...

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